The following are planned DEC actions that are detrimental to New York’s archery seasons:

1. the possibility of conducting a youth firearms weekend hunt during the southern and northern zone archery-only seasons,
2. conduct a muzzleloading hunt during the southern zone archery-only season,
3. suspend the use of antlerless bow tags (only bucks can be taken) in the Albany/Catskill region,
4. make a major portion of the southern zone archery-only season valid only for antlerless deer (no bucks can be taken),
5. allow for the use of crossbows during All the archery seasons.

NYB is opposed to conducting any type of firearms season during the bow-only seasons. There is no need to have a special youth weekend firearms big game hunt as there are plenty of opportunities to take a kid hunting over the duration of all the existing seasons. Bowhunters gave up the last weekend of their bow season in the southern zone in 2005 so that kids could participate on the opening day of the regular season. If this youth hunt is truly desired, it should be held on the 1st weekend of the regular firearms season, as has been proposed by the DEC for Suffolk County. However, the DEC is opposed to such an action upstate, as they do not want to upset those of us that gun hunt during the regular season. Obviously the DEC has little concern for the disruption that any firearms season would create during the archery-only seasons.

The DEC is proposing to suspend antlerless harvest (buck only hunting) during bowhunting and muzzleloading seasons in wildlife management units (WMUs) where no deer management permits (DMPs) are available (excluding Adirondack and Tug Hill units). At the present time, this regulation change would affect WMUs 4L, 4U, 4S, 4Z and 3A located in the Albany/Catskill area of the state. Statewide, bowhunters only harvest 15% of the total deer take and as such have a limited management impact on the deer population. Bowhunting is a challenging sport and without the anticipation of being somewhat successful in areas with low deer populations, the desire to hunt deer with a bow will be greatly diminished, resulting in reduced participation and fewer licenses sales.

Of equal concern is the DEC’s proposal to implement a muzzleloading season in the middle of the southern zone archery-only season. The DEC is trying to down play this as a minor issue that should be of little concern to bowhunters. The truth of the matter is that this proposal will potentially affect all of or a portion of 20 (over 40%) of the counties in the southern zone. The counties affected include Erie, Niagara, Wyoming, Monroe, Livingston, Orleans, Genesee, Ontario, Wayne, Seneca, Steuben, Yates, Cayuga, Tompkins, Orange, Sullivan, Ulster, Rockland, Westchester and Suffolk. The DEC is proposing to implement a three phase plan in an attempt to increase harvest pressure on antlerless deer in areas where deer populations are above desired levels. NYB supports the concept of harvesting additional number of female deer in areas of concern, however this three phase plan falls way short of this goal. Not sure what this is supposed to say on accomplishing this task.
.
Phase 1 – expand the use of bonus DMPs. This is currently happening in many of these units with more permits available than there are hunters willing fill them. This is evident by the large number of excess DMPs that are available to hunters on November 1st. In essence, the DEC cannot give away the existing permits as there are far more DMPs available than there are hunters willing to fill them. Phase 1 is already being utilized and it is not effective, thus the DEC plan will proceed to Phase 2.

Phase 2 – make a portion of the early bowhunting season and late muzzleloading season valid only for antlerless deer (no bucks). Because of the challenging nature of the sport, bowhunters will not harvest anywhere near the desired numbers of antlerless deer to prevent the DEC from going to Phase 3. Can you imagine passing on the buck of your dreams during the archery-only season because the DEC arbitrarily decided that bowhunters could only harvest antlerless deer for a select portion of the season? Bowhunters who are willing and able to harvest female deer should not be penalized for their management efforts. All hunters, not just bowhunters, need to be more pro-active in their efforts to harvest antlerless deer in over populated WMUs. As such, a better strategy needs to be developed that will carry over into the regular season where over 80% of the deer are harvested.

Phase 3- implement a special antlerless-only season for muzzleloader hunters before the rut in these areas. Under the above DEC plan, it is just about guaranteed that a muzzleloading season will be placed into the middle of the archery-only season in the southern zone and it is absolutely unacceptable.

In an effort to counter act this DEC plan, please contact your state Senators and Assemblypersons and ask them to introduce the following legislative bills.

1. Open the southern zone archery-only season on October 1st, ending on the Friday before Thanksgiving without the inclusion of any type of big game firearm, muzzleloader or crossbow season or hunt before or during this archery-only season.

2. Open the northern zone archery season on the 3rd Saturday in September, ending on the 4th Friday in October without the inclusion of any whitetail deer firearm, muzzleloader or crossbow season or hunt during this archery season, except that muzzleloaders may be used for whitetail deer from the 3rd Saturday in October, ending on the 4th Friday of October (Note: This combined bow/muzzleloader 1 week overlap already exists in the Northern Zone).

3. Open the Westchester, Suffolk and Nassau County archery-only seasons on October 1st, ending on December 31st without the inclusion of any type of big game firearm, muzzleloader or crossbow season or hunt before or during this archery-only season.

4. Allow bowhunters to use their either sex deer tag, that is purchased with their archery license, statewide.